Photos to go with the last post.

A Hill View from Retreat Monastery

Passing the time of day with one of the monk

Waiting on the Patio to begin Lunch

Some local style houses on a distant Hillside

A Monastery Dog Shares a Sitting Carpet

For those of you who were expecting this to be a blog about travels all over the subcontinent, like me, I'm afraid I'm about to disappoint.  One morning while I was having breakfast at my favorite restaurant in Boudha, Toast, and chatting with some western friends, who were attending the same seminar I was and who are are also students at a monastery college, they introduced me to one of their friends, an Australian woman, who teaches English to monks, small and large, at a monastery in the mountains above the Kathmandu valley.  After we had talked a while she, Johanna, asked me if I would consider coming up to the monastery to teach conversational English to some of the monks, mostly senior monks who knew English quite well already but had little conversational experience.  She said that she had only been asked to start looking for someone the night before and that I was the first one she had met since then who didn't have definite plans, I had said in the earlier conversation that I was going to travel whichever way the wind blew me.  I thought about it a bit while we talked about the monastery and she tried to tell me the possible negatives and positives of the opportunity.  It really wasn't necessary for me to think about it for very long, I had pretty much decided to give it a go within the first five minutes.  Seems that all those places in India and Nepal that I had read about and thought about visiting will have to wait.  This was definitely the blowing wind for me.  I've thought for a long time that the best kind of travel is when you can see the sights but also get a taste of the culture through getting to know the people, pretty difficult under most circumstances, but it seemed to me I had just been handed an exceptional circumstance!

The next three days were taken up by a retreat that was the last part of the seminar I had been attending.  The retreat was held in a monastery in the village of Pharping, about a two hour ride by bus from Boudha and about 2000  feet up in the mountains that form the southern boundary of the Kathmandu valley.  The monastery was built into the side of a cliff that looms over the village and contains on its mountain side a cave made famous by the Tibetan saint Padmasambhava, also know as Guru Rinpoche.   Views from the valley side of the monastery were spectacular, if seldom clear do the persistent valley haze and pollution. The 100 of us who went to the retreat barely fit into this small monastery requiring quite a few of us to sleep in the shrine rooms of the temple.  It was a very pleasant three days, the weather was brilliantly sunny and crisp, the food very good, the retreat talks interesting, the atmosphere very peaceful and there was enjoyable conversation with friends who only days ago had been strangers.  I should add just one negative, the walk up to the monastery from the village was UP and UP many  flights of steps, so many that it seemed like at least a thousand steps, though it didn't seem like that many on the way down.

The bus got back to Boudha about 6:30 PM on Sunday evening, and I hurried through the darkened town, in Nepal they call black outs power shedding, to a restaurant near the huge stupa at its center to have dinner with a American friend who works at the monastery in Boudha where most of the seminar was held.  We had a pleasant dinner discussing our backgrounds, his was Wall Street, early retirement,  trip to India, caught up by some Buddhist teachings, came to Boudha to study, the Rinpoche found out about his background in finance and he became development director. And, we also had a lively discussion of the up and downs of working in another culture, something we both had done.  To soon it was 8 PM and I was tired and ready to return to the Lotus Guest House for a good nights sleep, for tomorrow would be a busy day.  I would need to check out of the guest house, shop for a few essentials and pack all my gear for the trip to Rinchen Palri Monastery, my new home.  I needed to be ready to meet Johanna at 4 PM that afternoon to start the trip.

Note About Photo

As might be obvious I'm having a little bit of trouble getting the photos to go where I want them and to be the size I want them to be. I'm working on it but no promises.

A typical day in Bouda

It is hard to know where to start when you are already a week and a half behind.  From the day after I arrived here in Bouda I have been attending a Buddhist teaching that has been given primarily by the Lama, Chokyi Nyima, who is the abbot of the monastery where the teaching is going on and who has a whole chain of study and learning centers around the world.  My schedule has been pretty much the same every day since I arrived.  Get up, do my meditation and yoga practice, go out for breakfast, along the way walking a few circuits around the huge stupa in the middle of town with what seems like everyone else who lives in the area.  Breakfast has usually, but not always, been at a restaurant called "Toast".  For those of you who know me well, you will know the attraction of the name, I love toast in the morning , and "Toast" has some delicious whole grain bread that they toast.  Usually at breakfast I will run into a few other foreigners attending the teaching giving me some company for breakfast.

  Then its off to the monastery, its real name is Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, but to everybody in town it is known simply as the White Monastery or the White Gompa, gompa being Tibetan for monastery.  Usually I'm a bit early and the teaching almost never start or stop at the advertised time so there is time to sit in the sun and warm up.  The temperature range in the Kathmandu this time of the year is generally mid 70's for a high and mid 40's for a low and there are very few placed that are heated, especially not inexpensive guest houses, so sitting in the sun in the mid morning feels really good.  Once the morning teaching starts it goes on for about an hour an a half at which point we have a break for tea and crackers on the lawn in front of the monastery for about 30 minutes, by this time the sun has warmed up a lot and people start seeking out shady spots to sip tea and talk.  The Kathmandu area sits at about 4000 feet and so it has a semi mountain climate, meaning it warms up  and cools off very quickly.  After the break we have another hour and a half to two hours of teachings and then we are done for the morning sessions, usually around 1 PM, though often a bit later.  We  then have off until 3 PM when the afternoon session starts.  That gives me enough time to grab some  lunch at one of the many restaurants in town and/or go back to ones guest house for a quick nap.

From 3 to 5 PM there is a talk by one of several teaching Lama's from the monastery.  The talks, both in the morning and the afternoon are partly in English and partly in Tibetan with an interpreter for the Tibetan.  Usually the more difficult parts of the talks are given in Tibetan, so the interpreters have their work cut out for them.  They not only have to be fluent in Tibetan and English, they also have to be very well versed in Buddhist philosophy.  Fortunately the monastery has a degree granting college as part of its structure and they grant degrees, bachelors and masters, in Tibetan Language, Interpreting and Buddhist Philosophy.  Thus there is a ready supply of interpreters for courses such as the one I'm attending.  This college is separate from the monastery and is mostly filled with foreigners, that is non Nepalis.  There are quite a few young Americans in attendance as well as a large European presence, some Nepalis, a few students from Bhutan and surprisingly a few students from Tibet.  The Chinese do not let non monk Tibetans study Tibetan Buddhism, so if your not a  monk and want to study Buddhism and live in Tibet you need to schlep on down to a school like this  in Nepal to do your studies.

 By the time the afternoon session is over it is dusk or dark out.  Generally,  after class I head back to my guest house, throw myself on the bed for a few minutes, check my email, if the wifi is working, and then head out to dinner.  As at breakfast, dinner is a time for running into other fellow students and or perfect strangers in the various restaurant in town.  Seldom have I ended up sitting alone and eating at a restaurant, even when I might have like that.  These meals have generated some interesting conversations and fascinating characters.  In my next post I'll  try to describe some of the people I've met and maybe a taste of the teachings we've been listening to.

From Home to Kathmandu

On the 30th of October I took the train from New Hampshire (actually the station is in Vermont) to New York City to stay for a few days with good friends and do some shopping for the trip.  One important item on my shopping agenda was to buy one of the new light weight iPads to use on the trip.  One thing that seems to have changed since I was on the subcontinent 5 years ago is that, at least according to the guide books, wifi is everywhere.  Even the $5 a nigh guest houses seem to be offering it now, five years ago you had to spend lots of time in cramped Internet cafes in order to keep in touch.  I also took advantage of my time in NYC to see a friends play and so some visiting.  In retrospect I probably kept myself a little to busy, I wasn't very well rested when the time came on the morning of Nov. 5th to take a cab to Kennedy Airport and board my Emirates Airline flight for Delhi with a stop in Dubei.

The flight was on a new Airbus 380, the big full double decker airplane, the upstairs where first and business class flyers live is supposed to be really decked out, including a shower for 1st class passengers, coach, downstairs, was nice enough for coach, the seats were a bit wider than most and it was about as comfortable as one can get packed like sardines in a big metal can.  It was nice to have the stop in Dubai, to unwind my legs a bit, though at seven hours it was a bit to long.  Then came a three hour flight to Delhi, where I found a sparkling new terminal, a real improvement over the very overcrowded and chaotic old terminal.  After getting through immigration and customs and got a taxi across town to the room I had reserved in the small Tibetan refugee community of Manju Ka Tila on the northern side of the city.  I had decided to fly into India instead of Nepal, despite the fact that my first activity was in Nepal, because I expected to be leaving in January from India.  Also, I wanted to have a rest day before throwing myself into activities in Kathmandu.  And that was really a good idea, though it probably should have been two or three rest days, but the one day helped.

On the morning of Nov. 8th it was back to the airport and onto a plane for the 1 1/2 hour flight to
Kathmandu.  The plane was jam packed but the flight was short; short however, would not describe the wait to get through immigration and customs.  I didn't check but I think it took longer than the flight.  Fortunately, I ran into a young, mid 20's, traveler from Germany with whom to pass the time.
He was planning to take the trek to Everest Base Camp and we had a good time discussing his plans, which included walking, instead of flying, to the town where the trek actually begins in order to save some money, and as a rationalization he threw in the fact that it would help him acclimatize to the altitude.  He was going to have to fly back though because he only had a limited time visa and was pinched for time.  When I finally got out of the airport, it was early afternoon by now, I got a cab to the town of Boudhanath, usually called Boudha, walked through the town gate and was once again wrapped up in the peaceful atmosphere of this World Heritage Site.  I walked part way around the Stupa circle to my guest house, checked in and collapsed on the bed for a few minutes.  Until I realized that I needed to register for the Buddhist teaching and retreat that I planned to attend, so I went out into the lanes again, found the Monastery, pictured below, signed up and paid the fee.  Then
it was back to the guest house to get my stuff organized and an early dinner at one of the many
restaurants in Boudha and to bed early.  The teaching would begin the next morning at 9AM.

Where, Why, When and other Background!

Home Sweet Home

It has been five years since my last major road trip and I am anxious to get on the road again.  My last big trip like this one took me to India and Nepal (see the Blog: Travels with Adam and Jim) but I didn't get enough of it on that trip.  Both countries just fascinated me and were so different from one corner to another that even before that previous trip was over I knew I wanted to go back.

Actually, I had wanted to go back sooner but many things got in the way, not the least of which was moving more permanently to my house in rural New Hampshire, getting a lot of work completed on the house and last year being diagnosed with Lyme Disease.  In retrospect I believe I probably had the Lyme for about a year before it was diagnosed, I just didn't realize it was Lyme because the symptoms are so similar to getting older, I am nearly 71.  After the Lyme was diagnosed I went on a treatment protocol called the Cowden Protocol, it is a series of herbal medicines put together my an MD in Texas and by early this fall I was feeling good enough to begin making firm plans for this trip.  I will be traveling for 2 1/2 months, from November 5th till January 15, and will be in both India and Nepal.  The trip will begin with a two week Buddhist teaching and retreat in the town of Boudhanath, Nepal, near Kathmandu.  After the retreat the trip itinerary is wide open, I hope to pretty much go wherever the wind blows me, and/or  places that I hear about from other travelers, which is kind of like following the wind.